Saturday, December 31, 2016

Last lifts of the year. Not sure what I'm doing program wise these days - I just seem to go lift what I want to lift. Probably because I feel so weak after not lifting most of December.

Need to get myself an interesting program in 2017. I think it's time to retire Stronglifts 5x5. I really have exhausted that program after using it for more than 15 months. If you've got any recommendations, leave a comment. It would preferably be a program backed by a nice little app that is just as nice as the SL5x5 app. :-)

Todays Lifts

Barbell Squat

5x20kg

5x40kg

3x60kg

3x80kg

3x8x100kg

1x120kg

1x140kg

1x150kg

1x160kg

Not sure what to make of todays squats. I felt weak, and decided that todays work set would be 3x8x100kg. When finished with that I decided to go for a rep of 120. T.hat felt easy, so 140 .. 150. and 160 also went up. Turned out I wasn't as weak as I thought today.

Bench Press

20x20kg

5x40kg

3x60kg

3x80kg

6x100kg

2x5x100kg

10x80kg

12x80kg

I had hoped for more than 6 reps of 100kg. Didn't happen. The next two sets of 5 was really easy though. Then didn't feel like asking for another spotter, so went for some easy sets of 80kg.

Barbell Row

Thursday, December 29, 2016

Given how weak I've gotten with so little training in December, I decided to do the 3 big lifts all at the same day today. Yes, that means I'm silly enough to do Deadlift two days in a row; but what the heck.

Todays lifts

Barbell Squat

5x20kg

5x40kg

3x60kg

3x80kg

3x100kg

1x120kg

1x140kg

1x150kg

1x160kg

Bench Press

20x20kg

5x40kg

3x60kg

3x80kg

1x110kg (error in loading)

0x120kg (overeager spotter)

Did two things wrong. First, I used big black rubber plates, and thought the second set was 20kg plates too. Turns out they were 25kg plates. So my 1x100kg was stupid heavy - and then I realized it was 1x110kg. For my 120kg attempt; my spotter got a bit eager and helped me before needed. I *think* I would've done it, but I didn't. So No Lift for that one.

Deadlift

5x50kg

5x80kg

3x100kg

3x120kg

1x140kg

1x160kg

0x190kg (failed lift)

1x190kg (yeah!)

I failed my first attempt at 190kg. I've never managed to do a max attempt at second try before, and wasn't going to try one today neither.. except a big friendly fellow came over and pointed out that my lifting technique was slightly flawed. My knees was above the bar. He suggested leaning back and pressing through the heels.

Now, I thought I did that, but he insisted I didn't, so I thought what the heck, I'll give it a try.

It worked.

Thanks big friendly fellow!

Total

160kg+110kg+190kg = 460kg = 1014 lbs

Yes! I'm still in the 1000 lbs club! And this time I did all the lifts in one day!

So, my squats have been weirdly weak. I finally figured out why before going to the gym today. I used the Smith Machine to squat on Dec 8th, forcing my body to use a different bar path. I didn't return to using a proper bar path after just one session on that dreaded contraption. Todays focus was bar path.

Todays lifts

Barbell Squat

5x20kg

5x40kg

3x60kg

3x80kg

3x100kg

5x5x120kg (yeah!)

1x140kg

That went as it should. Focused on proper technique, and the lifts were easy. Not super-easy, but they went up. Satisfied.

Todays lifts

Barbell Squat

5x20kg

5x40kg

5x60kg

3x80kg

3x100kg

2x2x120kg

Again only 2x2 instead of 5x5.. and they were heavy. Something bad going on. You might be able to spot it in this video... Also - see the squatting in a smith machine setup .. and the tiny spotter bricks I use to rest the barbell on.

Overhead Press

5 days without lifting, as lifting with the Smith Machine wasn't overly motivating. I decided to give it another attempt. When I got into the weight room, I realized you could put the bar all the way at the top of the machine, and lift off the spotter bricks.

No spotter bars when doing this, and not entirely stable, but what the heck. A video was posted on Dec 19th, and will be in the Dec 19th post (This post is made on Dec 28th, backfilling December).

Barbell Squat

5x20kg

5x40kg

5x60kg

3x80kg

3x100kg

2x2x120kg (This is weak, I get back to why in the Dec 28th post)

The weak squats are a combination of bad lifting technique and fear of not having spotter bars. More details in the Dec 27th post.

Barbell Row

My new workplace has a gym room. I love that they do have a gym. The bad part is that the gym consists of a smith machine, and dumbbells. So, I decide to try the smith machine..

Todays lifts

Smith machine squats

5x20kg

5x40kg

3x60kg

3x80kg

3x100kg

3x110kg (getting very heavy)

0x120kg

A really bad thing is that the Smith machine is not bolted down, and when attempting 120kg the entire machine just moved along the floor. I had no chance of raising the barbell given that the entire contraption just moved. Good spotter bricks.

The other bad thing is that the bar path sucked. This was quads only. No involvement of hamstrings, glutes or my back.

Deadlifts

There's a free barbell, but no rack to use properly. However..

5x60kg

4x80kg

3x100kg

3x120kg

5x135kg

1x135kg

My glutes were exhausted after the Smith Machine, and 135kg is using all the weights in the weight room. At least I got to deadlift some.

So, we've flown to Norway. I'm at Gjøvik Elitegym for a day, before moving to Oslo. I love that Gym.

Todays lifts

Barbell Squat

5x20kg

5x40kg

3x60kg

3x80kg

3x100kg

1x120kg

3x3x150kg

Sled Push, low bar one way, high bar the other. 10.5m "track"

1x80kg

4x2x100kg

1x100kg

1x100kg

The Sled Push is a prowler-style device you can load plates on. One way, you push on a little handle that is maybe 20cm above the floor. The other way you push on top of the bars you put weights on, thus a high bar. This exercise is extreme cardio and conditionining. Great fun.

Monday, November 28, 2016

Took the weekend off to go to Galway to visit a friend that had invited me to a weekend thanksgiving dinner. Great little trip. Went there Saturday morning, returned Sunday afternoon. No time for lifting. However, this meant I entered the gym well rested this morning.

Todays lifts:

Barbell Squat

2x5x20kg

5x40kg

5x60kg

3x80kg

3x100kg

1x120kg

1x140kg

1x160kg

1x172.5kg PR

Bench Press

20x20kg

5x40kg

3x60kg

3x80kg

1x100kg

5x112.5kg

4x112.5kg

3x110kg

5x100kg

Heh, I was aiming for 5x5x112.5kg. That clearly was not going to happen today. Oh well.

Barbell Seal Rows

Friend of mine indicated I should try these out instead of the Pendlay rows I've been doing. So why not, they have a nice specialty bench for this at my Gym, so I could do this without setting up any rickety, unstable, hacked up thing myself.

5x20kg

5x40kg

3x60kg

5x5x50kg

First time I did these. I had expected to be able to do heavier rows. The 3x60kg was bloody heavy, and I probably could've pulled up a 4th rep, but I knew I couldn't do several sets of them. Reduced to 50kg, which went reasonably OK.

This seems like a decent exercise. Certainly more fun than the Pendlay rows.. and it felt like it exercised my back better. Dunno if I'll have equipment to do this easily in my new Gym when I move to Norway in a weeks time, but it'll certainly be something I'll keep doing when I have the chance.

Barbell Row

Friday, November 25, 2016

I didn't lift as I had planned today. Some went better, other went worse, but all in all I'm rather satisfied with todays lifts. Much better than anticipated. Especially the Deadlifts.

Sometimes gravity feels weak. Today was such a day.

Todays lifts

Barbell Squat

5x20kg

5x40kg

3x60kg

3x80kg

3x100kg

1x130kg

3x5x150kg PR

I was supposed to try to lift 3x5x147.5kg, but since my wife was lifting 5x5x30, which meant there were 2x5kg plates on the bar, I couldn't be bothered swapping them out with 1x2.5+1.25 kg plates between every lift, so I just left them on and added 20kgs. This turned out to yield a +5kg 5RM PR, instead of a 2.5kg one. Rather nice increase.

Overhead Press

5x20kg

3x40kg

4x67.5kg

2x5x67.5kg PR

3x67.5kg

I was aiming for 3x5x67.5kg, but the first set only yielded 4. The next two I completed 5 reps. The 4th set I hoped to get another 5, but couldn't get more than 3 reps done. Oh well. Still a 5RM PR.

Deadlift

5x40kg

5x60kg

5x80kg

3x100kg

1x120kg

1x140kg

1x160kg

4x180kg PR

Ridiculously satisfied with my deadlifts today. I was supposed to aim for 5x175kg, but felt strong. Added 180kg, and managed 4 reps. In reality, I thought I realistically could do maybe 3x175kg .. but ended up lifting so much more.

So, readers will remember that I've posted about doing Smolov Jr since this blog started. Unfortuantely week 3 was botched due to doing a tour around Ireland (most certainly worth it!), meaning I was stuck with hotel gyms.

I redid week 3 last week (which doesn't have any support in the program), and did my 1RM PR attempt today. Went for 135kg. No lift.

Todays lifts

Bench Press

20x20kg

5x40kg

3x60kg

3x80kg

1x100kg

0x135kg (failed lift)

Very very disappointed. I'll try another attempt at 1x132.5kg tomorrow, as there wasn't enough volume today to actually call it a workout.

Barbell Squat

5x20kg

5x40kg

3x60kg

3x80kg

3x100kg

1x120kg

1x140kg

1x147.5kg

Just some easy lifts today

Barbell row

5x32.5kg

5x72.5kg

5x5x92.5kg PR

Reason for the weird weights is simply that my wife is at 32.5kg, and I warmed up with that. Then added 20 on each side, then another 10 on each side. :)

My rows are breaking down form wise. While I call this a PR is a PR with very very poor form. I think I'll probably drop to 90kg and do that for a few weeks before getting back to 92.5kg

Monday, November 21, 2016

Took yesterday off. My back muscles feel funky after the botched attempt at 70kg Power Clean on Saturday. Spine's fine, but the muscles are sore. Better today than yesterday, so went for some heavy lifting. Kept well away from Power Cleans today.

Quite proud of my new Deadlift 5x PR. Feels good. Felt easy.

Todays lifts

Barbell Squat

5x20kg

5x40kg

3x60kg

3x80kg

3x100kg

1x120kg

3x5x145kg PR

I'm wondering whether I should stop doing 5x5s and start doing 3x5s for Squats. 5x5 are getting demotivationally exhausting. After the 3rd set I didn't have any more in the tank and just skipped the last 2 sets.

Overhead Press

5x20kg

3x40kg

5x5x65kg

The 5x5 felt excessively hard. But they all went up. Been a while since I've OHP'ed 65kg, given that I've been Smolov'ing for bench press. Wonder if I should start focusing on increasing my OHPs instead of bench for a while.

Deadlift

5x40kg

5x60kg

5x80kg

3x100kg

1x120kg

1x140kg

1x160kg

5x172.5kg PR

FINALLY managed to complete 5x172.5kg. That one required many, many attempts to get. Friday: 175kg !

Saturday, November 19, 2016

Well, I know. I did deadlifts first, and went heavy. Everything afterwards sucked.

Todays lifts

Deadlift

10x60kg

5x80kg

3x100kg

1x120kg

1x140kg

1x160kg

0x202.5kg (failed lift)

1x180kg

1x180kg

3x160kg

2x160kg

Power Clean

5x50kg

3x50kg

0x70kg (failed lift)

This was a painful failure. I felt I was failing, but attempted to get under the bar, bent my back too far back, and just dropped the barbell on the floor. Was afraid I had hurt something. Nothing hurts a few hours later, so I'm probably OK. Feck. Must be more careful with this kind of lift.

Barbell Squat

5x50kg

Barbell Front Squat

Friday, November 18, 2016

I think it's safe to say that my "semi-repeated" 3rd week of this Smolov Jr cycle hasn't worked out well. Was supposed to lift 10x3x120kg today, and it turned into a 4x1x120kg. Did do chest last week with machines, maybe this 4th week was just too much. We'll see the result Wednesday when I go for a 1RM PR attempt at 132.5kg. If it goes up, this entire thing can be considered a success. If not, ugh, time for another cycle.

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

New day, more lifting! Today marked the first day my wife has joined me in the Gym. I've started her off on Stronglifts 5x5, and today was Squat, OHP and Deadlift day. She performed admirably well for her first time in the Gym (5x5x20kg Squat, 4x5x20kg + 1x4x20kg OHP, 1x5x40kg Deadlift)!

Today's lifts:

Barbell Squat

A bit of a prolonged warmup today, as I was instructing my wife on how to proper squat. Didn't want to increase the weights while showing her the proper technique.

2x5x20kg

5x40kg

5x20kg

5x40kg

3x60kg

3x80kg

3x100kg

1x120kg

2x5x142.5kg PR

3x142.5kg

.. I was supposed to do 5x5x142.5kg, but had nothing more to give. Oh well, did a max lift yesterday, so who am I to complain.

Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Back home in Dublin. After a week of vacationing with Gyms of varying quality, I'm happy to be home again. Hit the gym and re-did my 165kg Squat PR. I'm also picking up Smolov Jr and redoing Wed, Fri and Sat from last week .. except I did the Wednesday today on a Tuesday. Doesn't really matter. I'll do Friday on Thursday and Saturday on Saturday. Probably not the "right thing" to just redo part of the program, but I feel that it'll work entirely fine. So I'm doing that.

Todays workout:

Barbell Squat

2x5x20kg

5x40kg

3x60kg

3x80kg

3x100kg

1x120kg

1x140kg

1x160kg

1x165kg

Showing off my belt too. :-)

Bench Press

20x20kg

5x40kg

3x60kg

3x80kg

3x100kg

7x5x107.5kg

Barbell Row

5x60kg

6x6x80kg PR

Todays meals

Sunday, November 13, 2016

First we drove to Rock of Cashel, nice castle ruins. Then on to Kilkenny. Arriving at Ormonde Hotel... it turns out they have a proper gym! With a squat rack. With enough weights. I celebrated this by setting a new PR.

Saturday, November 12, 2016

Skipped morning workout as we wanted to get out before most tourists. Did the Slea Head drive. After we got back to Killarney, it was time for a workout. Today was supposed to be the last day of my Smolov Jr cycle, but as readers know, it's difficult to bench press without the right equipment. Today was a new chest press machine.

Today's workout

Machine chest press

20x45lbs

2x5x85lbs

3x125lbs

4x155lbs

2x185lbs

3x155lbs

3x5x155lbs

4x3x170lbs

The machine was native in lbs, so that's what I list here. Quite light weight, but given the angle and so forth, this was heavy enough.

Lying leg curl

Started the day in the gym at Fota Island, but given time limitations only did cardio and chest there. Had a nice walk around, and climb up, Blarney Castle. Had an afternoon gym session at the Brehon Hotel.

Morning workout

Elliptical trainer

18 minutes

Machine chest press

20x25kg

5x45kg

3x65kg

3x85kg

3x105kg

3x125kg

4x145kg

3x4x140kg

2x140kg (failed rep)

5x100kg

This was not as good as hoped. Second to last of Smolov Jr bench is an 8x4 set. This isn't bench, but the substitute I have available, and that wasn't a heavy set of 8x4. Disappointed, but what can I do. I don't know what weight translates into what from this machine to bench, so went heavy.

Blarney workout

I list this as a workout given the intensity

Walking

90 minutes or so

Climbing, carrying 15kg daughter on one arm

Up and down the winding castle stairs to the top

I would never have gone up there with my almost 3 year old daughter if I had known I would need to carry her up slippery, winding stairs while supporting myself with a rope. Jeeeez.

Today we're heading for Waterford. Don't know whether there is a gym in the hotel or not. In any case; there'll probably not be any squat or power racks. At best a smith machine. Not sure how to use them. Do you curl the entire machine up from the floor? :-)

Udate: The hotel was in a fishing village outside of Waterford. Dunmore East. Beautiful place. No gym at the hotel.

Monday, November 7, 2016

My colleagues at Google decided to give me an Amazon gift card when I left the company a couple of weeks ago. They told me it was for a new keyboard. Probably thought my old Das Keyboard was too clickety. :-)

I've got plenty of good keyboards, but what I really lacked was a good powerlifting belt. So I ordered one last week. It arrived today. A nice XL powerlifting belt from RDX. This one, to be exact. I have to admit that XL barely got around my belly at the outermost notches, but well, it works. And I set a new 5x5 PR with it, without feeling I might be hurting my back. Which I guess is exactly why you want to have a belt.

Todays lifts:

Bench Press

20x20kg

5x40kg

3x60kg

3x80kg

5x6x100kg

10x100kg PR

So, Smolov Jr called for 6x6x100kg today. I felt like I wasn't reaching my limit at all, so decided to AMRAP the last set, which turned into a nice new 10 rep PR.

Barbell Squat

5x20kg

5x40kg

5x60kg

3x80kg

3x100kg

1x120kg

5x5x140kg PR

I've previously done 4x5x137.5kg, but never done even a single 5x140kg. With the new belt, doing 5x5x140kg turned out to be "easy". Certainly insanely heavy with me being utterly exhausted afterwards (well, rather exhausted after each set to be honest), but without feeling like my form was collapsing. Which I get is exactly why a belt is a good thing.

Sunday, November 6, 2016

Planned on doing a heavy deadlift and squat session. Turned into a very heavy deadlift session with some squats for the principle of things.

Todays lifts:

Deadlift

5x60kg

5x80kg

3x100kg

2x120kg

1x140kg

1x160kg

0x200kg (failed lift)

4x130kg

4x145kg

2x165kg

10x130kg PR

Was rather disappointed that I couldn't repeat my 200kg deadlift. On the other hand, I deadlifted on Friday and squatted heavy yesterday, so I couldn't really expect to be able to handle a 100% lift today.

Did set myself a new 10 rep PR during the AMRAP set though.

Deficit Deadlift

6x100kg PR

3x120kg

4x140kg PR

It's rather easy to set new PRs when it's the first time you do something. This was my first time doing deficit deadlifts. Entertaining but exhausting.

Barbell Glute Bridge

5x100kg PR

Another first. Didn't really enjoy this exercise. Will probably not repeat.

Barbell Squat

5x20kg

5x40kg

3x60kg

3x80kg

8x100kg

Very easy squat session today. I want to squat every day, but after the deadlifts I was pretty much spent. Did a set of 8 just to finish myself off.

Saturday, November 5, 2016

Smolov Jr is a tough program. It will demand that you break multi-rep PRs throughout the regular course of the program. Today I set a new 3rep PR in Bench Press, but even so, I failed to follow the program. Monday will be lighter weight, but more reps. Tough.

Todays lifts:

Bench Press

20x20kg

5x40kg

3x60kg

3x80kg

3x100kg

4x3x115kg PR

2x115kg (overeager spotter stole my 3rd rep!)

3x115kg

2x115kg (failed rep, deload)

5x105kg

4x105kg

3x105kg

While Smolov Jr calls for 10x3 on the Saturday, after 7 sets it was clear that the last 3 just wouldn't happen. I deloaded and went AMRAP for 3 sets at 105kg. Ended up 5, 4, 3 reps as you can see above.

Friday, November 4, 2016

The worst day of the week for lifting, in my experience, is Friday. So also this Friday. No PRs, and not even managing to complete what I hoped to complete. Blergh to Fridays.

Also, forgot to Bench before Squats, which probably sabotaged my last set. It also meant I skipped Overhead Press, as I didn't want to do it right after benching, and after Deadlifts I'm pretty much Dead and not doing anything else.

Todays lifts:

Barbell Squat

5x20kg

5x40kg

3x60kg

3x80kg

3x100kg

1x120kg

1x130kg

5x137.5kg

Only one set of 137.5kg. I've been squatting a lot recently, so a full 5x5 session didn't feel like it would be a good idea. I'll aim for doing that on Monday.

Bench Press

20x20kg

5x40kg

3x60kg

3x80kg

3x100kg

7x4x110kg

3x110kg (failed last rep, needed help from spotter)

Almost completed 8x4x110kg. Failed the 4th rep on the 8th set. Annoying. No matter, tomorrow is 10x3x115kg according to Smolov Jr. I have a slight feeling that'll be rather challenging. But, I'll give it a shot.

Deadlift

5x60kg

5x80kg

3x100kg

1x120kg

1x140kg

1x160kg

3x172.5kg (Almost 4 reps)

2x172.5kg

0x172.5kg (failed lift)

This was annoying. The 4th rep of 172.5kg was 2/3 of the way up before I had to give up on it.

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

As we're in the middle of moving countries (Moving back home to Norway, from Ireland), I had my last day of work Friday 10 days ago, while my wife has her last da at work next week. We managed to do a bit of bad planning, and my daughter is only in creche 3 days a week in November.

This means I don't have time for lifting today. I'll have to spend the day being in playgrounds and minding my daughter. Can't complain too much about an entire day of bonding. :-)

There might be some exercise during the day, I'll update with what I've manage to get done later today.

Todays minor exercises:

3x10x4kg Dumbbell lateral raise
3x10x4kg Dumbbell front raise

(Given that I have some light dumbbells at home, but was busy minding my daughter, this was all I had time for)

Monday, October 31, 2016

Mondays is one of my "main" lifting days. These being Monday, Wednesday and Friday. This means it's a heavy and exhausting day. While I've pretty much exhausted it, I still follow Stronglifts 5x5 a year into my lifting. Progress is nothing like what it used to be, but I love the app - and I find it to be a good base program.

Even so, I'm still doing my Smolov Jr bit for bench press, so although today isn't benching day according to SL5x5, I start out by benching.

Sunday, October 30, 2016

You might notice that I'm squatting, again. Yes, I'm trying to squat every day. Whether that's a good idea or not.. I'm not entirely sure. It's fun though. Not actually following the squat every day program, just doing what I think I can do.

Todays lifts:

Barbell Squat

5x20kg

5x40kg

10x60kg

3x80kg

3x100kg

1x120kg

1x140kg

1x160kg

Barbell Front Squat

5x20kg

5x40kg

5x60kg

1x80kg PR

0x90kg (failed lift)

Power Clean

5x40kg

5x50kg PR

1x60kg

1x65kg

3x1x70kg PR

Power Snatch

2x50kg

3x50kg

0x55kg (failed lift)

3x50kg

Pull Ups

4x5 @ -30

1x2 @ -30

(I stand on a platform that provides 30 units of lift. The units aren't denoted on this thing, so whether its pounds or kg or wossnames, I have no idea)

09:00: 500ml milk, 20g whey12:30: 500ml milk, 30g whey14:30: 12 chicken Gujons.15:30: Breadroll w/cheese and iberico salami17:30: At Restaurant Luna having a 3 course meal w/wine20:00: At Vintage Cocktail Club for a couple of cocktails.21:00: At Porterhouse for a couple of beers

The Lifting Blob

Welcome to this little blog about lifting. I'll jot down notes on my continous journey of eating and lifting.

While I enjoy working out, I also enjoy eating. Hence the name - The Lifting Blob. I'm still shaped as a blob after having lifted for a year and some months. Let's see how I look in another years time.